[2][3] In 1981, McElroy was convicted of attempted murder in the shooting of the town's 70-year-old grocer Ernest "Bo" Bowenkamp. Watch the new and 7th season of BuzzFeed Unsolved: True Crime! He was very cunning, MacLean told Patch. If you were to go to Skidmore today, there isn't much to see. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLD8iUdp33PqTsix2sGblEQZ8m5FQycC5D Vigilante justice, or cold-blooded murder?MERCH: We've got it! Trena dove from the truck and was taken to safety. Former Nodaway County prosecutor David Baird, Its proceedings are secret, but in news interviews at the time, McElroys widow said she told a county grand jury who murdered her husband. She died in 2012. 10 Things You Need To Know About The Documentary No One - ScreenRant If those responsible for killing McElroy are vigilantes, its because the justice system made them that way, Monte said. Yet the identity of McElroys killer is a public secret Skidmore has kept for 38 years. Meanwhile, major media outlets descended onto Skidmore and reports of its vigilantes became water-cooler talk across the U.S. For some residents, resentment against McElroy was projected onto the police. He met his last wife, Trena McCloud (19572012), when she was 12 years old and in eighth grade. Trena jumped from the truck and a man helped her to safety. Still, the panel didnt return an indictment, giving rise to conspiracy theories about a law enforcement coverup, also a theme in No One Saw a Thing.. In the end, fear is what killed him, Goslee said. As the story has been told by MacLean and others, McElroy showed up at the D&G tavern and pool hall the next day toting a rifle with a bayonet a violation of his bond and threatened to finish off the Bowenkamps. Farmers carried them to kill varmints, or for hunting displaying them in plain sight in rear window gun racks. Then, on the night of July 8, 1980, McElroy shot 70-year-old Skidmore grocer Ernst Bo Bowenkamp, unwittingly setting up his own murder a year later. Nobody wanted to talk to us, retired Missouri State Highway Patrol Trooper Dan Boyer tells A&E True Crime. 1964: Ken meets another girlfriend named Alice Wood. The morning of July 10, 1981, a group of frustrated and angry men gathered at the Legion Hall in Skidmore, MacLean writes. THE KILLING OF KEN REX MCELROY THIRTY YEARS LATER. Over the next two years, three grand juries were empaneled and testimony taken. Again, there were no indictments, and the McElroy murder case was tossed back to Baird. McElroy first began his relationship with McCloud when she was 14 and the two had a child shortly thereafter. They were witnesses. He was a goodhearted person. McCloud was McElroy's third "wife," though all unions were suspicious due to the fact that some of his marriages overlapped. Missouri State Highway Patrol Trooper Richard Stratton, the only lawman in northwest Missouri ever known to stand up to McElroy, hunted McElroy down and arrested him on an attempted murder charge. McElroy for the most part escaped prosecution and, certainly, conviction for various crimes. But in a dramatic act of . A man who turned out to be McElroy pointed a shotgun at me, Margaret tells A&E True Crime. In the summer of 1981, a jury handed McElroy his first-ever felony conviction for the lesser charge of second-degree assault. Despite three grand juries, no one has been indicted for the . And despite there being dozens of witnesses, no one has ever been arrested or charged in connection with McElroys murder. Ken Rex McElroy (1934 - 1982) - Genealogy - geni family tree McElroy was a big man with cold eyes who always carried a gun. [10] No one called for an ambulance. So what was left?. Looking back, the justice system had as much to do with killing Ken McElroy as anyone in Skidmore did.. April 10th, 1972: After Alice runs away with their son, Ken McElroy gets into an altercation with Alice's stepfather and shoots him. So the townspeople held a meeting. The law had plenty of chances, plenty of times to lock him up., Added Monte: Justice failed everybody. 1998 - 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. | All Rights Reserved. Ken Rex McElroy (June 1, 1934 July 10, 1981) was an American criminal and convicted attempted murderer who resided in Skidmore, Missouri, United States. 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Both Sally and Sharon begin having Ken's children. Nobody called an ambulance. The final straw for Skidmore was when he was let out on bond. McElroy was in town and behaving belligerently. McElroy mounted a daily vigil outside Bowenkamps house, his daughter Cheryl Brown recounts in In Broad Daylight: The town emptied out every time he came to town. Charismatic, with jet-black hair and piercing eyes, McElroy could sweet-talk his way around women and had been married three times by his early 40s. Neither Baird nor MacLean, whose crime novel has been praised as an accurate account of McElroys killing, buy that. No one called for an ambulance. To the residents of the small town, he was the town bully. Somebody would hear his name, and the legend grew bigger. It was also the first major case for a young county prosecutor, not far removed from law school and just months into the job, who said he was confident that the case would be solved soon. He never finished high school but knew how to hunt, drive fast and navigate the back roads of Nodaway County by his early teens. But justice is a loaded term in a case that challenges the usual assumptions of victim and perpetrator. The town has seen more than its share of tragedy. The Tylenol Murders: Is It Too Late to Solve the Famous Cold Case? A memorial in the tiny downtown park displays the name of an expectant mother murdered six years ago, her fetus cut from her womb. Everyone involved continues to keep the secret and gives no answers. He went about making public threats against the grocer while armed with a rifle. The Strange Killing of Ken Rex McElroy - YouTube For example, one of the owners of the D&G tavern would send her young children to the grocery store for paper towels, keeping the children innocently unaware they were telegraphing an urgent message for the Bowenkamps to call the police. June 25th, 1981: Ken McElroy is sentenced to two years in jail. The police chief who oversaw the investigation, Hal Riddle, disagrees. Ken Rex McElroy (1934 - 1981) - Genealogy June 25th, 1981: McElroy returns to Skidmore out on bail until an appeal hearing. 'No One Saw a Thing': A town torn apart by 38 years of violence There may never be an answer to the question of who killed Ken Rex McElroy. Ken Rex McElroy was an American known as "the town bully" of Skidmore, Missouri. Boyer was taking trajectory measurements at the crime scene when a town official chided him. Trena McElroy remarried and had a fairly normal life, refusing interviews after she left Skidmore. Timeline | McElroy Posted on July 14, 2011 by Harry. An extensive federal investigation did not lead to any charges. Get the Android Weather app from Google Play, Win a Midday Makeover from Studio STL and West County, Hold my beer its time to sign up for the St. Patricks, Tims Travels: Dreaming in silestone and slabs its, Downtown is turning green for St. Patricks Day Parade, The 7brew Crew brings kindness, joy and of course,, Freshen up finds: Give your skin a slug-hug, What the Cluck! *In Broad Daylight by Harry N. MacLean 1988. McFadin, McElroys lawyer, got the hearing postponed. Shortly after, Strattons wife Margaret was headed to church when she saw a strange truck in the driveway. A bond hearing was ordered. The law wasnt going to help the people of Skidmore. McElroy was also accused of abusing his first two wives, Sharon and Alice, but Alice defended him in an interview shortly after his death. US residents can opt out of "sales" of personal data. They sacrificed one for the betterment of hundreds. The grocer lived and McElroy was again arrested and charged with attempted murder. His successor, Robert Rice, already knew how Mr. McElroy died. When they met him on the street, parents steered their children, especially their daughters, away from McElroy, a notorious womanizer who favored young women and was married multiple times including to a child bride he was accused of raping and fathered 15 children. He was known as the town bully , but they may be putting it mildly. Some attributed his bizarre and violent behavior to a head injury suffered in this event. Over the course of his life, McElroy was accused of dozens of felonies, including assault, child molestation, statutory rape, arson, hog and cattle rustling, and burglary. His unsolved killing became the focus of international attention. There just wouldnt have been a story.. Known as "the town bully", McElroy was accused of dozens of felonies, including assault, child molestation, statutory rape, arson, hog and cattle rustling, and burglary. The Vigilantemurder of Ken Rex McElroy still remains a mystery today. [6] Trena and her baby were placed in foster care at a home in Maryville, Missouri. He was sure it was Mr. McElroy who had done the shooting. Obsessed with travel? Ken McElroy Wiki & Bio - Everipedia You just didnt do that.. Its never going to happen.. McElroy was born in 1934, the fifteenth of sixteen children born to a poor . When the call went out, State Police Cpl. Everyone was keeping an eye on us. There were as many as 60 witnesses, yet the crime remains unsolved. Bottles, glasses for restaurants and barsincomible/Getty ImagesFull of Audienceuschools/Getty ImagesAn American police officer posing arms folded beside cop carDarrenMower/Getty ImagesCar Wash Truck SprayA-Digit/Getty ImagesCity People Setedge69/Getty ImagesSilhouette of people in action4x6/Getty ImagesCaucasian farmer standing in irrigated fieldHill Street Studios/Getty ImagesYoung woman on the streetSensorSpot/Getty ImagesShot Truck Driverwwing/Getty ImagesOlder Caucasian man standing with hands in pocketsSam Diephuis/Getty ImagesOutlines of rebellionsshironosov/Getty Imagesmain street remote rural prairie towndlerick/Getty ImagesBlank magazine on wooden backgroundgrinvalds/Getty ImagesEmpty Country Road In UsaDan Thornberg / EyeEm/Getty ImagesCaucasian farmer wearing gloves leaning on wooden fenceSteve Smith/Getty ImagesJudge holding gavel in courtroomChris Ryan/Getty ImagesAuthentic Cowboy Rancher Portraitavid_creative/Getty ImagesSilhouettes of three cowboys on a white backgroundheartbar/Getty ImagesCaucasian security officers posing with flashlightKirk Marsh/Getty ImagesPrivate investigator reports what he seestzahiV/Getty ImagesThis farm is my pride and joypixdeluxe/Getty Imagesdark portrait of a man in a hoodserikbaib/Getty ImagesWhite colored house with blue doorMableen/Getty ImagesYoung couple havi EXTERNAL CREDITSGrant Henderson - Editor+Rick Weller- GFX Artist McElroys rear window was shot out and the front window as well. Often, witnesses changed their mind about testifying before trials began, MacLean said, and if a case did make it to trial, a juror might open the mailbox to find a rattlesnake. He leaves Sharon to move in with Alice. And Mr. Baird lost his first election, in the Democratic primary this year, by just 25 votes, a loss noted by The Kansas City Star because of his connection with the case. Missouri-based journalist Steve Booher described the attitude of some townspeople as, "He needed killing. As many as 60 people were reported to have been at the scene, but not one of them would say who had wielded the weapons.
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